Followers of Jesus Christ are a wonderful people of faith. Faith sustains us in difficult times. Our faith gives us hope, joy, and a reason to live. As we study the Word of God we find many blessed promises, which enrich our lives. With God’s promises also come guidelines for living.The Bible says, “Your word is a lamp to guide my feet and a light for my path” (Psalm 119:105 NLT).In today’s culture, many people have the opinion that we should live by our own standards, oblivious to the Word of God. Some want the blessings of the promises of God, without subjecting themselves to obedience to God. However, to truly be happy and fulfilled, we must examine ourselves in the light of God’s Word and live by it. The stress and tensions of life becomes more unbearable when lived in selfish disobedience to the Word of faith. Yet simple submission and obedience to God’s Word relieves the stress that disobedience, and today’s culture, imposes. Doubt is crippling but faith is empowering so make that leap! Faith in action brings victory! The Bible says In James 2:26, that faith without works is dead. I have learned that faith with works (action) is alive. Faith without works (action) can become an unfulfilled fantasy. For if I have faith that God is leading me but I do not follow, or act on it, then faith turns to doubt and my inaction leads to death, the death of my faith and the death of my dream. This is a horrible state in which to exist.Unfulfilled faith creeps into one’s life like oil into water. Just as oil pollutes, leaving a nasty film, which ruins the purity of the water, so doubt, solidified by inaction, covers the purity of faith rendering it polluted, unfit, and unusable. Faith activated by works (action) skims the doubt that covers the water of life, cleans it, and recovers the purity of the gift that obedience brings to fruition.We must be doers of the word and not just hearers. It is so human to hear the word, rejoice in what we hear, and then…. ponder. Pondering plants seeds of doubt, which grows into the mighty tree of procrastination, that bears the poisonous leaves of inaction.“But they delight in the law of the LORD, meditating on it day and night. They are like trees planted along the riverbank, bearing fruit each season. Their leaves never wither, and they prosper in all they do” (Psalm 1:2 NLT).We must be like good soldiers and jump to attention, springing into action at the orders of our commander, the Lord. But what do we do instead? We hear the order, and then prepare to jump, but inaction and hesitation causes us to get caught in the preparation, and we fail to jump. What a sad sight, to see the army of the Lord, procrastinating before Him! How undignified!It is better to jump and fall, than be stuck squatting down to jump. Squatting is a horrible place to stay. You can’t sit down. You can’t rise up. You can neither rest in your success nor stand in the knowledge of a job well done. Go ahead and jump! You can ask how high on the way up! Better to relieve the tension and stretch in the jump than to live with the constant strain of being stuck in the squat. Obedience in the jump is the better way. Make that leap of faith. We’ll see you on the way up!

Gene Markland is an Author, Speaker and Entrepreneur. He is the author of Fellowship in the Spirit: Angelic Encounters, Spiritual Warfare, and Effective Intercession are Waiting... He resides in Virginia Beach, Virginia with his wife Martha and daughter Laura. Gene blogs at http://www.spiritfellowship.blogspot.com/